Conjugacy of local homeomorphisms via groupoids and C*-algebras

Abstract

We investigate dynamical systems consisting of a locally compact Hausdorff space equipped with a partially defined local homeomorphism. Important examples of such systems include self-covering maps, one-sided shifts of finite type and, more generally, the boundary-path spaces of directed and topological graphs. We characterise topological conjugacy of these systems in terms of isomorphisms of their associated groupoids and C*-algebras. This significantly generalises recent work of Matsumoto and of the second- and third-named authors.